We are about to launch a peer counseling program in our county. Following the state's lead, our intention is to reach out in some innovative ways, using computers and smart phones to reach women and answer their breastfeeding questions correctly before they take bad advice which causes them to quit breastfeeding.

As we are charting new territory, we have to think about these things carefully. 

For instance, the county is insisting that all emails go through their system, so that each email between the peer counselor and her clients can be collected and recorded. 

Should all clients' emails to and from their peer counselors be collected by third parties who are not health professionals? Moreover, these third parties are not only not health professionals, but they live in the same small town as the clients. 

I realize that most of these questions are not going to be spectacularly interesting, but if a Nosy Parker from London were to somehow break into our email, and read that Suzy in Smalltown, California, had a cracked nipple, it would be less personal than if Suzy's next door neighbor were to read the same thing.

And these third parties may in fact comprise unknown numbers of people--precisely where these emails will go will be outside our control. 

All this information sharing could be happening while the peer counselor was developing a nurturing relationship with her client, based on trust and mutual respect. It's our security policy, but it is making me feel a bit insecure.

Is there a to handle this that would offer better security for everyone? Ideas?

Arly Helm, MS, IBCLC

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